Tag: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Scientists call on InSight’s robotic arm to assist stalled heat probe on Mars
The self-hammering mole, part of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) on NASA’s InSight lander, was only partially buried in the soil of Mars as of early June 2019, as shown in this illustration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Later this month, ground teams will send commands for the InSight lander on Mars to use its…
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NASA to shut down Spitzer Space Telescope early next year
This infrared view of the butterfly-shaped W40 nebula, a star-forming cloud of gas and dust 1,400 light-years from Earth, was captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech After a search for an outside funding source turned up empty, NASA plans to end observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope in January to conclude a 16-year…
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SpaceX cargo ship reaches space station
Credit: NASA TV A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship caught up with the International Space Station early Monday and then stood by while Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, operating the lab’s robot arm, locked onto the spacecraft to wrap up a two-day rendezvous. “Well done, well captured,” a flight controller radioed from the Johnson Space Center in…
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InSight lander detects first likely ‘quake’ on Mars
This image of InSight’s seismometer was captured March 19. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Sensors delivered to Mars by NASA’s InSight lander have detected the first signals suggesting seismic activity on the red planet, a major discovery that extends the field of seismology to a new world beyond the Earth and the moon. Scientists announced the detection Tuesday,…
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InSight scientists not sure stalled Mars heat probe can be recovered
A camera on the end of the InSight lander’s robotic arm took this picture of the Heat and Physical Properties Package, or HP3, instrument’s support structure on the Martian surface March 28. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Ground teams analyzing data from a heat probe that got stuck soon after it started digging into the Martian crust under…
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NASA declares Opportunity rover dead after 15 years on Mars
Opportunity’s front hazard-avoidance camera captured this image of the rover’s shadow July 26, 2004. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Eight months after last hearing from the Opportunity rover, NASA officials announced the end of the craft’s 15-year mission Wednesday, closing out an ambitious chapter of Mars exploration that proved the Red Planet once harbored running water and demonstrated…
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NASA declares Opportunity rover dead after 15 years on Mars
Opportunity’s front hazard-avoidance camera captured this image of the rover’s shadow July 26, 2004. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Eight months after last hearing from the Opportunity rover, NASA officials announced the end of the craft’s 15-year mission Wednesday, closing out an ambitious chapter of Mars exploration that proved the Red Planet once harbored running water and demonstrated…
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NASA’s first interplanetary CubeSats fall silent beyond Mars
MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took these images as it approached Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech After a successful mission that pushed the limits of small satellite technology, ground controllers have lost contact with two briefcase-sized CubeSats beyond Mars, NASA said Tuesday. The pioneering Mars Cube One, or MarCO, mission set records…
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NASA’s first interplanetary CubeSats fall silent beyond Mars
MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took these images as it approached Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech After a successful mission that pushed the limits of small satellite technology, ground controllers have lost contact with two briefcase-sized CubeSats beyond Mars, NASA said Tuesday. The pioneering Mars Cube One, or MarCO, mission set records…
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InSight lander completes seismometer deployment on Mars
NASA’s InSight lander has placed a protective enclosure over a French-developed seismometer designed to detect tremors on Mars, completing the deployment of the first of two science instruments delivered to the Red Planet in November. Using its nearly 8-foot-long (2.4-meter) robotic arm, InSight followed commands beamed up from Earth to cover the seismometer package with…